METHOD AND SYSTEM TO DISTRIBUTE POLICIES

• US 20050131712A1
• Filed: 12/11/2003
• Published: 06/16/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Kirchstein, Eric, Cruz, Christina M., Searcey, Carrie W., Kaminsky, David L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,495,227 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/229
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/00 Arrangements for maintenance, administration or management of data switching networks, e.g. of packet switching networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0893 Assignment of logical groups to network elements
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/0894 Policy-based network configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/344 Out-of-band transfers

Abstract

A method to distribute policies may include transmitting one of an identification (ID) assigned to a policy template or the policy template associated with each policy to an enforcement point or selected enforcement points for enforcement. The method may also include transmitting one set of parameters to be used in each policy template to the enforcement point.

Claims

1. A method to distribute policies, comprising:

transmitting one of an identification (ID) assigned to a policy template or the policy template associated with each policy to an enforcement point or selected enforcement points for enforcement; and

transmitting one set of parameters to be used in each policy template to the enforcement point or selected enforcement points.

2. The method of claim 1, binding the parameters to each associated policy template.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising implementing the policy associated with each policy template.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting a query in response to each policy template corresponding to any transmitted IDs not present at the enforcement point or any of the selected enforcement points.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising transmitting any policy templates to the enforcement point or any of the selected enforcement points in response to a query from the enforcement point or any of the selected enforcement points including any IDs assigned to the policy templates.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising applying asynchronous, out-of-band communication to transmit the query and any policy templates.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising compressing each policy template before transmitting to the enforcement point or any of the selected enforcement points.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming each policy template in a structured document.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming each policy template in a mark-up language.

10. A method to distribute policies, comprising:

defining a policy template associated with each policy;

assigning a unique identification (ID) to each policy template;

storing each policy template and assigned ID; and

transmitting one of the assigned ID or the policy template to an enforcement point for each policy to be enforced by the enforcement point.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising identifying at least one set of parameters to be associated with each policy template.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising transmitting the one set of parameters to be used in each associated policy template for enforcement to the enforcement point.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising binding the parameters to each associated template.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising implementing the policy associated with each policy template.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing each one of the at least one set of parameters by name and type.

16. The method of claim 10, further comprising querying a repository in response to each policy template corresponding to any transmitted IDs not present at the enforcement point.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising transmitting any policy templates to the enforcement point in response to a query from the enforcement point including any IDs assigned to the policy templates.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising applying asynchronous, out-of-band communication to query the repository and transmit any templates.

19. The method of claim 17, further comprising compressing each template before transmitting to the enforcement point.

20. The method of claim 10, further comprising compressing each template before transmitting to the enforcement point.

21. The method of claim 10, further comprising forming each policy template in a structured document.

22. The method of claim 10, further comprising forming each policy template in a mark-up language.

23. A system to distribute policies, comprising:

a policy administrator to define policy templates and to transmit one of an identification (ID) assigned to a policy template or the policy template associated with each policy to be enforced; and

an enforcement point to receive the ID assigned to the policy template or the policy template for each policy and to enforce each policy.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein each policy administrator comprises a processor to transmit one of the ID assigned to the policy template or the policy template associated with each policy.

25. The system of claim 23, wherein each enforcement point comprises:

a processor to receive the IDs assigned to each policy template; and

a data source to store each policy template for enforcement and assigned ID, wherein the processor forms and transmits a query in response to each policy template corresponding to any transmitted IDs not present in the data source.

26. The system of claim 23, further comprising a repository to store each policy template and assigned ID.

27. The system of claim 26, further comprising a server to interface between each policy administrator, each enforcement point and the repository.

28. A system to distribute policies, comprising:

means for defining a policy template associated with each policy;

means for assigning a unique identification (ID) to each policy template;

a repository to store each policy template and assigned ID;

means for transmitting one of the assigned ID or the policy template for each policy to be enforced; and

an enforcement point to receive the assigned ID or the policy template for each policy and to enforce each policy.

29. The system of claim 28, further comprising means for binding parameters to each associated policy template for enforcement.

30. The system of claim 28, further comprising means for transmitting a query in response to each policy template corresponding to any transmitted IDs not present at the enforcement point.

31. The system of claim 28, further comprising means for transmitting any policy templates to the enforcement point in response to a query from the enforcement point including any IDs assigned to the policy templates.

32. The system of claim 31, further comprising means for applying asynchronous, out-of-band communication to transmit the query and any policy templates.

33. The system of claim 31, further comprising means for compressing each policy template before transmission to the enforcement point.

34. The system of claim 28, further comprising means for forming each policy template in a structured document.

35. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing a method, comprising:

defining a policy template associated with each policy;

assigning a unique identification (ID) to each policy template; and

transmitting one of the assigned ID or the policy template to an enforcement point for each policy to be enforced by the enforcement point.

36. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising:

identifying at least one set of parameters to be associated with each policy template; and

transmitting the one set of parameters to be used in each associated policy template for enforcement to the enforcement point.

37. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 36, further comprising binding the parameters to each associated template.

38. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising implementing the policy associated with each policy template.

39. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising querying a repository in response to each policy template corresponding to any transmitted IDs not present at the enforcement point.

40. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising transmitting any policy templates to the enforcement point in response to a query from the enforcement point including any IDs assigned to the policy templates.

41. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 40, further comprising applying asynchronous, out-of-band communication to query the repository and to transmit any policy templates.

42. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising compressing each template before transmitting to the enforcement point.

43. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising forming each policy template in a structured document.

44. The computer-readable medium having computer executable instructions for performing the method of claim 35, further comprising forming each policy template in a mark-up language.